Publication Order of Standalone Novels

John Sandford Biography:

John Roswell Camp going by the pseudonym John Sandford is one of the best selling novelists and the winning journalist of the Pulitzer Prize 1n 1986 for a series of Midwestern farm crisis stories. The prize was for a non deadline feature in the daily column titled Life on the Land. John sandford was born on 23rd of February 1944 in Cedar Rapids Iowa. John attended a public school in Cedar and later on in 1962 he graduated from Washington high school. In the year 1963, John Roswell was admitted in the University of Iowa to undertake a Bachelors degree in American studies where he graduated in the year 1966. In the same year Camp met and married his late wife Susan Lee Jones who was also from Cedar Rapids and a student in the University of Iowa.

John Joined the US Army in the same year till 1968 after which he became a reporter for the Cape Girardeau Southeast Missourian till the year 1970. John Camp then went back to the University of Iowa to pursue a master’s degree in journalism where he graduated in 1971. Between 1971 and 1978, John Camp became a reporter for The Miami Herald and later on he moved to Minneapolis where he became a features reporter for St. Paul Pioneer Press till 1990. John Sandford has from the year 1990 written thriller novels and also two non fiction books on plastic surgery and art. John is also a principal financial backer of an archaeological project in the Jordan Valley Israel. His interests are such as painting, photography, hunting and fishing. John and his late wife (died of metastasized breast caner) have two children Emily and Roswell and a grandson Benjamin.

In 1989, John started working part time for Pioneer Press to concentrate on writing. He later stopped working completely for the Press in late 1989. In that same year, John Camp wrote two novels, The Fools Run and the Rules of Prey. The Fools Run one of the four novels from the Kidd and LuEllen series was published under his own name John Roswell Camp but his publisher later on asked him to provide a pseudonym for his other book. Rules of Prey, one of the 23 novels from the Prey series was the first book to be published under his pseudonym John Sandford. The Prey series became very popular as compared to The Fools Run a Kidd series novel published under John Camp and one of the best selling novels leading to all his other books including The Fools Run being published under the pseudonym John Sandford.

A third series started in the year 2007, featuring Virgil flowers a supporting character in the first series the prey series. John has as per the year 2013 written 23 books in prey series, four in Kidd and LuEllen series and seven in Virgil Flowers series. The author has also written two other fiction books, the night crew and the dead watch, a short stories book and two none fiction books.

John Sandford has over a significant period of time been reviewed as one of the best novel writters in the world. Several/most of his books from the three series and other categories have received magnificent reviews from his fans. The writter makes sure to captivate his readers and makes them go back for more. Below is a list of all the novels by John Sandford. They are arranged in the order of years of production which is also the arrangement of the series.

Two movies so far have been produced featuring two novels from prey series. In the year 1998, a TV movie on Mind Prey was produced by Jaffe/Braunstein Films,Limited. The movie was starring Eriq LaSalle as Davenport. The movie was however not a success as it received very poor ratings from viewers. This led to reservations in production of any more TV movies on the Books. However, in the year 2011, November, the USA TV took a chance and also aired a TV movie featuring Certain Prey starring Mark Harmon as Lucas The TV show unlike the previous one did quiet well and received magnificent ratings from fans giving the US TV its highest numbers that year.

A 24th novel of Prey series in yet to be released in the 2013 though the book’s title has not yet been released
The second series is Kidd and LuEllen Series with four novels.

The Fool’s Run in 1989 which was originally under John Camp and later reissued in 1996 under John Sandford.
The Empress File in 1991 also reissued under John sandford in 1995
The Devils Code in 2000 and
The Hanged Mans Song in year 2003.

Third series is Virgil Flowers Series with seven books

Dark of Moon in 2007
Heat Lighting in 2008
Rough Country in 2009
Bad Blood in 2010
Shock Wave in 2011
Mad River in 2012 and
Storm Front coming up in October 2013

The Virgil Flowers is also one of the series said to be expected to continue.

The order in which people read these books is constantly mixed up. However, the first two books were Rules of prey from the prey series and The Fools Run from the Kidd and LuEllen series. The good news is, as much as it is important to read the books in the order they were produced, John Sandford writes his work in a manner that guarantees maximum entertainment no matter the book you choose to start with.

The author has also written other books that are not represented in the three series.

Other fiction books.

The Night Crew in 1997
Dead Watch in 2006

Nonfiction books.

The Eye and The Heart
Plastic surgery in 1989

The Author has also written one short stories books also published under his pseudonym John Sandford.

More About John Sandford:

When you think of the Pulitzer Prize winning journalist and bestselling novelist John Roswell Camp, you may end up drawing a blank. But that is the real name of an author I am sure you all have heard of, John Sandford. He created the pseudonym at the request of his publisher in 1989. He had two books coming out that year and they decided to release one, The Fools Rush In, under his real name and a second under a pseudonym, Rules of Prey. The later took off, becoming increasingly more popular than the first. So from then on John Roswell Camp became John Sandford.

Before his first two releases in 1989, John Sandford wrote for the Miami Herald, for seven years during the 1970’s. 1971 – 1978 to be precise. He used his Bachelor’s in American history and Masters in Journalism from the University of Iowa to hone his skills, becoming a top writer at the Miami Herald.

In 1978 John Sandford was looking for a new challenge. He packed up and moved to Minneapolis. There he joined the staff of The Saint Paul Pioneer Press as a features reporter. As usual his work excelled there and John Sandford became a full-time daily columnist by 1980. That year was also his first brush with a Pulitzer as he made it as a finalist thanks to a series of stories he had written on Native American culture.

John Sandford’s break out year would come in 1986. That year his writing efforts would be validated even further as he won a Pulitzer for Non-Deadline Feature Writing. His series “Life on the Land: An American Farm Family” were the stories he had written to result in such a prize. They followed your average Minnesota farm family during the Midwest farm crisis, taking place over the course of a year. These stories seemed to resonate deeply with Minnesota residents and the Pulitzer board as well, resulting in John Sandford’s first big win.

It was not until 1989 that John Sandford stopped writing daily for the Pioneer Press and with the success of his novels he quit writing for them completely the very next year. From that point forward John Sandford became a full time novelist, writing to date, over 30 novels.

John Sandford also served in the Army from 1966-68, he has a passion for archaeology, even becoming the principal financial backer for a dig in the Jordan valley of Israel. He also has a passion for art and photography and a love for hunting and fishing.

The nearly 70 year old author, Cedar Rapids, Iowa native, born February 23, 1944, shows no signs of slowing down, as he continues to release books in his Prey Series, Virgil Flowers Series, Kidd Series and the odd one off book. John Sandford has become a bestselling author many times over and for good reason, his books are a joy to his readers and bring the same high quality writing one would expect from a John Sandford book every time.

John Sandford – Books and Characters

John Sandford’s first major hit, Rules of Prey, released in 1989, has since spawned over 20 sequels. The very first book sucked readers into a murder/mystery in a thrilling way and set the bar for the books to come.

In Rules of Prey we are introduced to a killer named Louis Vullion. He is your average bottom of the barrel young attorney, who uses his day job to scout out his next female victim. He uses tactics that would be admired by an chess master and creates one heck of a fear storm for the residents of Minnesota. Finally, the hero of all the books, Lucas Davenport is called in to end this young attorney’s reign of terror. Davenport is not like your regular lieutenant, he invents computer games, drives a Porsche to work and attracts plenty of beautiful women along the way. He works on his own and prefers it. Davenport seems to have an instant understanding of the killer and so begins a thrilling cat and mouse game between the two from start to finish of Rules of Prey.

In another of John Sandford’s series, Virgil Flowers, he once again creates a world around murder and intrigue. In Dark of the Moon, first in the series which has since spawned 6 sequels, we are introduced to the main hero on the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, Virgil Flowers. Like most good heroes he comes with plenty of back story and baggage, making him complex and leaving the reader wanting to delve further into his world. Flowers tackles his toughest case to date in Dark of the Moon. A small town is rocked by a series of murders and when he goes to investigate he finds the motives seem to be deeply personal. Before long he also suspects himself of being a target, leading to a race against time to discover the killer before he himself becomes another murder victim.

Each and every John Sandford book follows the same formula of the above two, creating wonderful characters, rich worlds and exciting suspense from start to finish. Even his nonfiction books, such as his book on Plastic Surgery remain an engrossing read. You cannot seem to go wrong curling up with any of John Sandford’s books and inviting his wonderful characters into your living room.

John Sandford – in The Movies

With John Sandford’s works on top of the New York’s bestseller list time and time again, it was only a matter of time before his works were brought to life on your television screen. Over time, a few of his works have done just that.

One of his works to recently be turned into a TV movie was Certain Prey, having none other than star of the hit CBS show, NCIS, Mark Harmon portray Lucas Davenport on USA network. It premiered to a massive viewing of over 5 million viewers, topping all in ratings that day besides The Walking Dead and Football. It was also the 2nd highest ranked cable movie of the year in ratings.

Another of his works, once again in the Prey series, Mind Prey, was made into a television movie back in 1998, finding little success compared to his most recent television outing. It starred Eriq LaSalle, or ER fame, as Lucas Davenport and was met with low ratings and generally distaste from fans of the series.

John Sandford – The Future

The future looks bright for John Sanford fans, as he continues to release novels of their favorite characters and I am sure it will only be a matter of time before more of his works show up on a television screen near you.

Saw the trailer of this movie starring Matt Damon, and of course those epic words 'based on the book by....", and had to try it out. What followed was an AMAZING reading adventure and just an absolutely incredible book. You've got time until the movie comes out - so be sure to read the book first. Trust me you won't regret it.Get it here.

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